USS Constitution Tribute Build

[Greif8]

16 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Ernest,

    Excellent job on that rudder.  And some great history, too.  Keep it up!

 

 

Hi Gary, thanks for stopping by and the compliment.  Glad you are enjoying the history.

 

Ernest

[Juggernut]

You're going way further into this than I ever would have.  It's nice to see the effort you're putting into the kit. 

[Greif8]

Test fit the rudder and got a lot done on the 18 carriages for the British made 24 pounder cannon.  

 

The rudder looks pretty decent in its place.  I still need to paint the straps on the hull black.

The after-market carriages are a nice upgrade from the kit parts.  They do take some work to assemble though.  Below are the 18 carriages for the British made 24 pounder cannons that made up part of the Constiution's armament during the war of 1812. 

 

Following is a funny historical tidbit brought about by one of those cannon. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were given a tour of the Constitution when they visited the United States as part of the Bicentennial.  The queen recognized the royal seal of King George III on one of the cannon and after being told that it and another seventeen of the 24 pounder cannon on board the ship had been purchased from England a few years prior to the War of 1812 she turned to Prince Philip and said: "We really must talk to the Secretary about these foreign arms sales when we get home."

 

Ok, here are the carriages under construction! 

 

A full set of 53 contains the 18 carriages for the British 24 Pounders.  12 carriages for the American made 24 Pounders (The cannon are slightly shorter than their British counter-parts), a carriage for the 18 Pounder bow chaser (which I am not using), and a total of 22 carriages for the carronades in two different types.

 

I will build 12 of the 18 carriages for the British 24 Pounders to be completely rigged with a Breeching Rope, two sets of tackle that serve to both run the gun out and turn it slightly when requires, and a set of tackle at the rear that was used to pull the gun back into the loading position (used if the gun was not fired).  The other 6 carriages will only have their Breeching Ropes attached.  The 12 fully rigged carriages will be able to be seen, in whole or in part, once the spar deck is in place; the other cannon will not be able to be seen so I am not going "all out" to rig them.  You can see the 5 eyebolts that are required when one sets up a full rig on the photos below.

 

And here are the 18 carriages painted with 10 of them also prepped with eyebolts.  I mixed a terracotta color using Lifecolor paints using red, white and orange at a ratio of 2:1:1 and sprayed the carriage bodies.  The wheels were sprayed with Lifecolor black and installed after the paint had dried.  

 

Ernest

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Greif8

[Greif8]

36 minutes ago, Juggernut said:

You're going way further into this than I ever would have.  It's nice to see the effort you're putting into the kit. 

 

Hi Tim, thank you for stopping by to look and kind words.  I am doing my best to make soemthing that my dad and your mom would enjoy looking at.

 

Ernest

[Juggernut]

Ya know, after watching your build, I just ordered a wooden deck from Scaledecks.com for the USS United States.  I just gotta find out some more particulars on her.  Wikipedia says she was outfitted with 55 guns (thirty-two 24-pounder cannon; twenty-two 42-pounder carronades; and one 18-pounder (8 kg) long gun).  It also says her armament varied by captain so who knows.... More to discover.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Juggernut

[Greif8]

A final small update for today.  I glued the wooden spar deck onto its plastic counterpart.  It went down with no issues and I will only have to do some minor sanding of a couple of spots on the edges once it has cured overnight.  Of the two decks, I the spar deck was the one I wanted to turn out really well as that deck will be seen completely on the finished model.  I got lucky and both decks turned out pretty nice, but I admit I was holding my breath cutting and fitting the spar deck!

 

Ernest

 

An overall view; not the best photo but the deck is long, too long to be photographed well on the bench.

 

And a couple of close ups of sections of the deck.

 

 

 

[Greif8]

1 hour ago, Juggernut said:

Ya know, after watching your build, I just ordered a wooden deck from Scaledecks.com for the USS United States.  I just gotta find out some more particulars on her.  Wikipedia says she was outfitted with 55 guns (thirty-two 24-pounder cannon; twenty-two 42-pounder carronades; and one 18-pounder (8 kg) long gun).  It also says her armament varied by captain so who knows.... More to discover.

 

Hi TIm, the armament of the frigates changed throughout their service lives.  The three big 44's all started out somewhat underarmed as the USA had trouble manufacturing quality cannon early on, and Great Britain and France were not very interested in selling the new nation cannons until after circa 1805.  The armament you describe in your post is accurate if you want to build the ship armed as she was during the War of 1812, and perhaps the First Barbary War as well.  She definitely was armed with at least thirty 24 Pounder cannons and twenty-two 42 Pounder caronnades, and very likely a single 18 Pounder bow chaser when she defeated the HMS Macedonian during the War of 1812.

 

Ernest

[Juggernut]

I just did a Google search for USS United States Frigate 1812 and got very few results.  Anatomy of the Ship series doesn't do a volume on United States but since I have the Constitution book, some of that may be applicable.  I'm afraid I'm at the mercy of the instruction booklet when it comes to colors.  When I looked under the box top, the hull halves are identical to those for the Constitution...the transom is different as it includes the poop deck (if that's what it's called).  I'm not a very good naval person so my terminology will be lacking.

[Gazzas]

Thank you for the added history, Ernest.  Those gun carriages look top notch.

 

One thing I can remember from the build done at my house when I was a kid, was how the guy turned his shiny copper bottom into a cool looking mass of green stained and partially stained plates.  I don't know what he used for a wash...  but when he wiped it off, it went from bland to awesome...   for a kid, anyway.

[LSP_Ray]

That wood deck upgrade looks great, Ernest!

[mozart]

All fascinating stuff as usual Ernest. I have no urge to build a sailing ship, much as I love O’Brian’s novels, but by golly I’m enjoying this thread….living vicariously matey! 

[Troy Molitor]

Fantastic efforts going on here Ernest.   Wow.  Love the efforts and history involved.   Thanks for sharing your journey with us.   

[Hartmann352]

Damn!

Those cannon carriages have to be as bad as armor/artillery tracks. Oi Vey!

 

Cheers, 

Dave

[Greif8]

10 hours ago, Juggernut said:

I just did a Google search for USS United States Frigate 1812 and got very few results.  Anatomy of the Ship series doesn't do a volume on United States but since I have the Constitution book, some of that may be applicable.  I'm afraid I'm at the mercy of the instruction booklet when it comes to colors.  When I looked under the box top, the hull halves are identical to those for the Constitution...the transom is different as it includes the poop deck (if that's what it's called).  I'm not a very good naval person so my terminology will be lacking.

 

Hi Tim, there is certainly much less info to be found about the USS United States than her more famous sister.  The main difference in outwards appearance between her and the Constitution and the other 44 gun, the President is the poop deck, sometimes called a roundhouse that you mentioned in your post.  If you plan to build the ship to resemble how she looked from her launching in May 1797 through circa 1805-06 the poop deck is correct.  In 1805-06 the ship underwent a refit that did away with the poop deck and from that time forward she looked very much like her two sisters.  I assume - always a bad thing to do - that you have the kit released in 1976 with a picture of the United States on the box and the title USS United States "Old Waggon" on it.  If that is the boxing you have than the ship looks as she did up to her 1805-06 refit, which is correct for both the Quasi-War time period and part of the First Barbary War time period.  If you have any other boxing that is based on the Constitution kit, she looks as she did after 1806.  I will see what I can find in the archives reference her colors, which like the other frigates, was different depending on the time frame.

 

Ernest   

[Greif8]

10 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Thank you for the added history, Ernest.  Those gun carriages look top notch.

 

One thing I can remember from the build done at my house when I was a kid, was how the guy turned his shiny copper bottom into a cool looking mass of green stained and partially stained plates.  I don't know what he used for a wash...  but when he wiped it off, it went from bland to awesome...   for a kid, anyway.

 

Hi Gary, thank you for the compliments and I am glad you find the history interesting - I can be too much of a good thing when it comes to writing about the history of build topics.  I had considered weathering the copper bottom to give it a greenish tint, but decided to build the ship as close to the appearence that of the build dad and I did when I was a kid.  I could not resist upgrading some stuff with aftermarket though!

 

Ernest